Australian smartphone market nearing saturation

Australia's maturing smartphone market meant that one million fewer units were sold in 2015, analyst firm Telsyte estimates.

An estimated 7.9 million smartphones were sold last year, down 11% from 2014, the company said. But the higher cost of premium models kept revenue steady for the year.

In a sign the market is nearing saturation, only 860,000 new smartphone users were added in 2015, compared to 1.87 million in 2014.

Telsyte expects a similar number of new users this year and predicts that the figure will near natural net population growth by 2020, translating to around 400,000 to 500,000 new people per year.

The company estimates that there were 17.6 million Australian smartphone users at the end of 2015, but around 3.5 million still using regular-feature phones.

“It is getting harder to get consumers to upgrade their smartphones. Manufacturers will need to give customers more reasons to upgrade in 2016 than the end-of-mobile-service contract or larger screen size,” Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi said.

But despite this, Telsyte expects sales to pick up this year, thanks in part to an expected major iPhone refresh and a stronger line-up of Android-based handsets. The company forecasts that 8.4 million units will be sold in 2016.

Android leads the Australian smartphone market with an estimated market share of 49% in the second half of 2015. But iOS followed close behind with a 46% share, making Apple the most popular individual brand, followed by Samsung.

Image courtesy of Michael Coghlan under CC